Tiger Bech ’21, former Princeton football player, died on Wednesday, Jan. 1 at the age of 27. He was among the 14 killed in a terror attack in New Orleans.
Bech received a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology at Princeton. His senior thesis was entitled “A Comparative Analysis of Homelessness from 2018 to the Post Covid-19 era in New York Penn Station.”
Bech was a wide receiver and punt returner for the Princeton football team and a member of Cottage Club. A native of Lafayette, La., he attended St. Thomas More Catholic High School (STM) where many considered him as a close friend.
In an interview with The Daily Princetonian, Michelle Bech, Tiger Bech’s mother, explained that “at one point, during my son Jack Bech’s eulogy, he said to the whole audience, ‘if Tiger was your best friend, please stand up.’ There were about one thousand people in the church; I would say a third of the church stood up in that moment.”
“The number of Princeton students and teammates, friends who didn’t play sports, friends from the women’s soccer team, friends from Cottage, friends he met in class — there was this cathedral in this small Cajun town that was full of so many Princeton people. I still can’t believe it’s real,” she added.
“As his roommate, it was a challenge to keep track of how many friends he had,” Sam Johnson ’20 wrote to the ‘Prince.’ “Whether they were his friends from Louisiana, prep school friends from Loomis Chaffee, work buddies from Seaport Global or new people he met out at a random night in Manhattan — everyone held him to such a high regard. His loyalty and honesty played a huge part in that.”
“He loved so many people so deeply … he told just about everyone ‘I love you’ at the end of every call,” Michelle Bech added.
“Tiger really loved his family,” Lance Strother, Tiger Bech’s high school football coach said. “It was not uncommon for Tiger to be hugging Jack or his sisters, or dishing out kisses to his family members.”
Tiger Bech and his mother, Michelle Bech, in Prospect Gardens at his graduation, one of Tiger’s favorite study spots on campus.
Courtesy of Michelle Bech
Tiger Bech was devoted to sports from a young age. He began playing soccer when he was young, and had participated in lacrosse, fencing, and track and field before landing at football.
“His first love was [soccer]. He played soccer from a really young age,” Martin Bech, Tiger Bech’s father, told the ‘Prince.’ “Football … obviously took over at some point in time.”
Strother described Tiger Bech as “fearless in all aspects of life.”
“I think I first met Tiger when … he came to STM as a freshman in high school,” Strother told the ‘Prince.’ “At that time, he was small but mighty. He was an above average athlete with good speed and a lot of confidence.”
“He was a knucklehead at times, and it’s part of what made him fun,” Strother described. “There was a game where Tiger decided that he really liked the socks that he had that were not uniform.”
Strother explained that Tiger Bech kept the socks on despite various coaches telling him to change. “He just kind of kept bebopping around and going through the process … Tiger managed to wear his own socks all the way up until about three or four minutes before kickoff.”
After graduating high school, Tiger Bech spent a post-graduate year at Loomis Chaffee, a private school in Connecticut, where he played quarterback despite being a wide receiver.
“The quarterback had gotten injured in the first or second play of the first game,” Michelle Bech explained. “So Tiger, although he had never played quarterback, told the coach: ‘I’ll do it.’”
“Watching him play football was almost like watching a ballerina on the football field,” she added.
Tiger Bech and his brother, Jack Bech, both played collegiate football.
Courtesy of Michelle Bech.
Tiger Bech’s friends and teammates from Princeton remember him fondly as a socially charismatic extrovert who had an innate ability to befriend anyone he met while living his life to the fullest.
Christian Sullivan ’20, one of Tiger Bech’s teammates and close friends, called him a “renaissance man.”
“He loves to hunt, fish, shoot, and be outdoors,” Sullivan wrote to the ‘Prince.’ “Conversely, he also loves house music, playing pool, and drinking beers with the boys.”
Sullivan described a trip he took in Summer 2024 with Tiger Bech and Ryan Quigley ’20 to Spain for the Running of the Bulls in San Fermin. Although Sullivan had initially planned to take a trip out west to visit the national parks, Tiger Bech quickly convinced him otherwise.
“‘Your two best friends are about to take a life changing trip to Run with the Bulls and you are going to turn that down to go to the national parks by yourself?’” Sullivan recalls being asked. “‘The national parks are going to be there for you later, you can do that with your family when you’re 40. You can’t run with the Bulls when you’re 40.’”
The trip was “an immovable core memory, and epitomizes Tiger’s spontaneity, and his mantra of living life to the fullest,” Sullivan added.
Quigley was also injured in the attack and hospitalized for several days.
Bech, Quigley, and Sullivan on their trip to Spain
Courtesy of Christian Sullivan
Johnson called Tiger Bech “the definition of a lively extrovert.”
“Tiger was a fiercely loyal and honest friend who prioritized spending time and keeping in touch with family, teammates and friends over anything,” he stated.
“I have never met someone that was so good at connecting people from different walks of life,” Johnson added.
On Monday, Jan. 20, ESPN College GameDay released a six-minute video chronicling Tiger Bech’s life and legacy before the College Football Playoff National Championship game.
“His message would be to people book the flight, take the trip, hug your family, just live, and live right now,” Tiger Bech’s older sister, Ginnie Bech, emphasized in the video.
During his funeral on Jan. 6, Tiger Bech’s family spoke about the tremendous impact he has on their lives.
“All he wanted to do was spend time with me, my family, and every single one of you,” said Sophie Bech, Tiger Bech’s sister. “Even if it was watching a movie, taking a nap, sitting on FaceTime with him to keep him company … he simply wanted to ask about your day.”
While Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin was scheduled to play during the funeral, Free Bird by Lynyrd Skynyrd unexpectedly started playing in its place, Quigley told ESPN during Tiger Bech’s tribute video.
“Free Bird was the theme song of Princeton football … And no one knows how that song came on, and it was so beautiful. I know that was Tiger [Bech].”
On Jan. 13, Sophie Bech wrote an Instagram post in Tiger Bech’s honor. “There’s nothing like having a big brother. Especially one that is heroic, brave, kind, vibrant, full of life, and overflowing with love … Thank you for the 27 years of laughter, cries, smiles, and screams.”
Ginnie, Tiger, and Sophie Bech at Power’s Field, Princeton.
Courtesy of Michelle Bech.
In the week before his death, Tiger Bech was staying at his family home in Lafayette.
“He didn’t know this or realize this, but it was like he was on a farewell tour,” Michelle Bech told the ‘Prince.’ “He went to visit so many people, adults, other kids, [to tell them]: ‘Hey, I wanted to come visit you. I wanted you to know that I’m okay.’”
“He was the happiest he’d ever been … It was really good to see how happy he was and how much he’d accomplished, and the path that he was on; he just absolutely went out on top,” Martin Bech added.
Tiger Bech is survived by his parents, Martin and Michelle, his brother Jack, and his sisters Virginia and Sophie.
Victoria Davies is a head News editor for the ‘Prince.’ She is from Plymouth, England and typically covers University operations.
Doug Schwartz is an associate Sports editor for the ‘Prince.’
Please send any corrections to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.
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